Bush Is Right in Stressing Resolve; a Sad Walk Through Devastated Downtown NYC; Bloomberg Is Odious, But Green Would've Been Worse; Clinton Can't Shut Up

President Bush's speech in Atlanta last Thursday night, typically lampooned as a "pep rally" by much of the media, was a well-written, confidently delivered update on America's international and domestic war efforts. Those who expected a repeat of the rhetorically brilliant oration he gave to Congress on Sept. 21 were disappointed, perhaps, but that's missing the point. That mournful if resolute call-to-action was one-of-a-kind, cemented in a particular time, and will be remembered as the first historic political address of the 21st century. Instead, last week Bush finally gave a coherent explanation of the "mixed message" of citizens' resuming "normal" lives while living with the administration's consistent warnings of further?even imminent?terrorist attacks on this nation. Go to work, shop, play soccer, dine out, celebrate the holidays, but be cognizant of suspicious activities within your own community.

Then Flight 587 crashes on takeoff from JFK Monday morning?Veteran's Day?and the city is shut down again. That's life post-9/11. Bush's alert makes sense, especially to New Yorkers who remember the crime-ridden years of the late 80s and early 90s: Back then, returning home from work after dark, I'd often walk in the middle of the street, especially in the alarmingly dimly-lit neighborhoods of Soho and Tribeca. Today's threats are obviously magnified but the principle's the same: Either give in to fear and diminish your lifestyle or make the best of a crummy situation.

I thought the conclusion to Bush's speech in Atlanta was poignant, although you could hear the groans in newsrooms from Boston to Washington, DC.

He said: "Courage and optimism led the passengers on Flight 93 to rush their murderers to save lives on the ground, led by a young man [Todd Beamer] whose last known words were the Lord's Prayer and, 'Let's roll.' He didn't know he had signed on for heroism when he boarded the plane that day... We will always remember the words of that brave man expressing the spirit of a great country. We will never forget all we have lost and all we are fighting for... We cannot know every turn this battle will take, yet we know our cause is just and our ultimate victory is assured. We will no doubt face new challenges, but we have our marching orders.

"My fellow Americans, let's roll."

One more jingoistic bit of cornpone from the callow president-select was undoubtedly the reaction from the elitists in the mainstream press, who worry more about Afghan casualties than they do their fellow Americans. One more reason to write and broadcast stories about how badly the war is going, even though the conflict is still in its very beginning stages, and in recent days has yielded swift progress in toppling the Taliban.

(I can't help thinking that reporters and editors involved in the absurd recounting of Florida's election last year were distracted, hoping a definitive victory for Al Gore would emerge. That didn't happen, as is clear by reports in Monday's New York Times (a grudging rehash), The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, among other organizations.)

By the way, I include the GOP hawks who believe the United States ought to be bombing Baghdad right now in the doubting-Bush category. But there's no way Bush will stop with the Taliban: What further bulletin do naysayers like Bill Kristol and Robert Kagan need than the following statement from the President's Atlanta speech? "We are at the beginning of our efforts in Afghanistan, and Afghanistan is only the beginning of our efforts in the world. No group or nation should mistake Americans' intentions. Where terrorist groups exist of global reach, the United States and our friends and allies will seek it out, and we will destroy it.")

In any case, I'm certain Bush's "let's roll" sign-off?blunt and concise?met with cheers from those citizens who are frightened but emboldened at the same time. Even those "flinty Vermonters."

I was glad that Bush didn't say the country had lost its innocence because of the Sept. 11 massacre, but instead stated that Americans are "sadder and less innocent." That's an important distinction: As I've written before, how many times can an individual, especially one who's reached adulthood, lose his or her innocence?

But "sadder," at least down in my downtown neighborhood, is completely accurate. Last Friday afternoon, I took my sons for a walk down Broadway?our destination was the recently re-opened J&R Music World on Park Row?and it was one more sobering reminder of how brutally Lower Manhattan has changed. It's impossible to close your eyes to the wreckage: In contrast to the now-bustling shopping districts above 14th St., these streets are a swirl of confusion and devastation. Concrete blockades restricting vehicular access, Red Cross trucks, cops as ubiquitous as bums during the Dinkins mayoralty, storefronts boarded up, vendors selling patriotic paraphernalia, wilted flowers and faded posters of missing WTC victims at any number of makeshift shrines, pedestrians milling about with glazed-over faces and the omnipresent smell of death still in the air. As we walked farther downtown, I couldn't help looking west at every block: The smoke, painful noise of bulldozers and the mere sight of the blighted landscape was enough to demoralize even Will Rogers.

As we passed by Trinity Church?now a tourist destination?I had an impulse to go inside and pray for the countless victims of the WTC atrocity; the murdered and their families, the small businessmen now bankrupt, residents still uprooted from their homes and the hope that this vital, vibrant financial district might somehow be made whole in years to come. My sons, resilient kids under the age of 10, didn't want to linger on our march. I couldn't blame them for trying to block out the civic carnage: After two months of abnormal living conditions, in which they've memorized the face of Osama bin Laden, seen their ballfield and local park destroyed, fastened American flags on their school blazer lapels, watched President Bush on television, they understandably want to resume their carefree pre-Sept. 11 lives.

My wife and I have always taken a keen interest in the boys' progress at school?constantly repeating the mantra that vigilant attention to homework will be rewarded in the future?but their small triumphs seem more important now. For example, Junior had a difficult assignment last week, memorizing the capitals of 30 states, and we peppered him for three days before his test. This is pretty tough stuff for a third-grader?I certainly don't remember such rigorous history lessons at my fine public school in Huntington some 38 years ago?but when he came home last Thursday, jubilantly presenting a 100 percent grade, I can't remember a prouder moment we've felt as parents. It's been a long time since I remembered that Frankfort is the capital of Kentucky. Likewise, MUGGER III is not only learning to read, but bugs us nightly with more Dr. Seuss books to practice with.

Not that their lives revolve around American history and yet another version of "new math" that's beyond my ken. Last Saturday night, Junior and a couple of friends were invited to a benefit at FAO Schwarz in which they had the run of the store, and, as he told me on the cab ride home, got to break-dance and do the moonwalk. And our younger son, who at seven wants to either enter politics or own a toy store when he's older, is still nuts about DragonBallZ videos and action figures. I suspect, and hope, that the devotion to family that Bush constantly invokes is flowering across the country.

Mrs. M and I had dinner last week with two close friends at the recently opened Harrison?355 Greenwich St. in Tribeca?and while it was heartening that the restaurant was nearly filled with customers, it wasn't the upbeat occasion that we've shared with our neighbors so many times over the past year. The food's terrific?fried clams, yellowfin tuna and mammoth pork chops were the standouts?but the conversation wasn't exactly uplifting. Sure, we talked about our children, the impending folding of the Minnesota Twins and the stock market's surprising rebound since September, but mostly the pall that hangs over downtown took precedence. Air quality, the bickering between the cops and firemen at Ground Zero, bomb scares and horrendous traffic jams dominated our chatter. There was no complaining, just the plain reality that our lives have changed unalterably since last summer.

Not a loss of innocence, but immense sadness.

Mark Green Chokes

I couldn't stay up past 11 p.m. on Election Day?Bret Schundler's unnecessary loss in New Jersey sounded taps for me?so finding out the next morning that Mike Bloomberg had defeated Mark Green in the mayor's race was a pleasant surprise. It was a hold-your-nose contest: Bloomberg appears to be a very unpleasant man who's attracted more to the cocktail parties of zip code 10021 than actually governing the city, but compared to lifelong Democratic hack Green there was no real choice.

Obviously, this GOP victory was an anomaly. The cocky entrepreneur's luck was stupendous: Not only did his challenger run a smug and arrogant campaign, alienating his electoral base with a nasty intra-party feud with Freddy Ferrer, but Rudy Giuliani's belated endorsement of Bloomberg, which was perfectly exploited in his barrage of television commercials (and not incidentally, further enhanced by a seven-game World Series), put him over the top. Green, who one hopes will now give up on elected office after choking in several races over the years, hurt himself with the incredible statement that he might've done "as well or better" than Giuliani in the WTC crisis. He obviously wasn't thinking straight.

I don't expect too much from the liberal Bloomberg. His excessive schmoozing of Democratic union leaders and Al Sharpton since his win is distressing, as was the following remark he made to the Times' Maureen Dowd: "Do I have anything in common with John Ashcroft? No, of course not. But I don't have anything in common with Robert Byrd either."

In fact, his public statements since last Tuesday have been distressing. Lifelong lefty Pete Hamill, of all people, celebrated Bloomberg in his Nov. 12 Daily News column, surely an ominous sign. He wrote: "Take [Bloomberg's] Sharpton handshake. Across his two terms, Mayor Giuliani never did manage to shake Sharpton's hand. He never took a single Sharpton phone call... But no matter what you think of Sharpton (and clearly he provokes much passion), he is a key person in the New York democracy. He might be the most intelligent of our public men. He has a rare gift for brilliant language... Even those of us who dismissed [Bloomberg's] candidacy as a rich guy's whim must root for him to succeed. If he fails, New York fails. In a time of crisis, even old Dodger fans can root for the Yankees."

What crap. Sharpton's language is not "brilliant": It's calculated race-baiting.

There's one reason why Bloomberg's election was crucial to the city: Success in the private sector. He is likely to persuade wavering companies to remain in NYC?which is essential to the city's economy, from top to bottom?whereas Green would've had no clue or inclination to provide incentives to business leaders. Once he shed a layer or two of centrist skin, the Public Advocate would've probably returned to his left-wing roots and played patsy for the special-interest groups that hobble local Democrats.

My favorite post-election analysis came from The Wall Street Journal's Al Hunt, a Beltway bluenose who regularly bashes "country-club" Republicans. This is how the working man's champion began his Nov. 8 column: "My political advice goes to those who pay a dollar for the Thursday paper or who watch CNN on weekends. Michael Bloomberg, however, is a social friend whom I see frequently in Vail." And that's just during skiing season: No doubt Hunt will be a guest at Bloomberg's just-completed mansion in Bermuda next summer, sipping Gosling's rum while demonizing Tom DeLay.

Another irony was lost on Hunt in his exultation at his friend's victory. Unlike The Nation's Eric Alterman, who correctly noted in his Nov. 26 column that John McCain, Mr. Campaign Finance Reform, campaigned lustily for the free-spending Bloomberg, thus putting the Arizona senator's "crusade" in question, Hunt was blind to this contradiction. Instead, he wrote: "Michael Bloomberg, a member of the GOP for less than a year, is unlikely to get much solace from the White House. He is a common-sense liberal, not George Bush's kind of 'Republican.' Moreover, he has a huge liability in the eyes of White House staff: He's personally close to Sen. John McCain."

Al, stay away from the keyboard: The Bush/McCain fissure has lessened since Sept. 11. And despite Hunt's dated reference to the President's "kind of 'Republican,'" there's no doubt that Bush is now an "I Love New York" chief executive, demonstrated by his four visits here as well as close association with social moderates like Gov. Pataki, Giuliani, Bloomberg, Tom Ridge and Rep. Chris Shays.

Clinton Can't Shut Up

When did Bill Clinton start drinking? A lot of conservative commentators gleefully excised portions of Clinton's rambling and largely incoherent speech at Georgetown University on Nov. 7 to prove he's giving moral succor to the Islamic fanatics who desire nothing more than the United States' total destruction.

Most inflammatory in his lesson about terrorism was this passage: "Those of us who come from various European lineages are not blameless... Here in the United States, we were founded as a nation that practiced slavery and slaves were quite frequently killed even though they were innocent. This country once looked the other way when significant numbers of Native Americans were dispossessed and killed to get their land or their mineral rights or because they were thought of as less than fully human and we are still paying the price today... And even today, though we have continued to walk, sometimes to stumble, in the right direction, we still have the occasional hate crime rooted in race, religion or sexual orientation. So terror has a long history."

What this has to do with Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Islamic Jihad, Arafat or Saddam Hussein is beyond me, but it should be noted that at the outset of his remarks Clinton pointedly voiced his support of President Bush, the administration's foreign policy team and our allies in the current war. So aside from inappropriate (especially for an ex-president) timing, not to mention yet another dubious defense of his eight-year tenure at the White House, the most Clinton can be blamed for is his narcissistic need to be the center of attention.

As the impeached former chief executive surely knows, his historical legacy diminishes almost daily: No matter how this protracted conflict turns out, Clinton's presidency will be sandwiched between those of the two Bushes and scholars will be hard-pressed to find much favorable to say about the Man from Hope. He'll most likely be lumped with other third-tier presidents, characterized as a savvy politician who squandered a period of prosperity in favor of non-stop self-aggrandizement. Clinton's scant list of accomplishments?the Kosovo intervention, cooperation with a Republican-controlled Congress and peace at home?will be dwarfed by his personal scandals, illegal campaign fund-raising, barely disguised disdain for the military, the breakdown of the FBI and CIA, and one of the worst cabinets in American history.

It's too grand a wish, I know, but the country would be far better off if Clinton quietly went about making money, eating ribs during his infrequent visits to Harlem, playing golf and keeping his beak out of Bush's business.

Unfortunately, "quiet" is a word that isn't in the man's dictionary.

Nov. 12

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